Gaining CEQA/NEPA experience

Hi Guys,
I am currently working for an environmental consulting firm as a biological monitor. I would really like to turn my career more towards the environmental planning field. I have a BS and a MS from a UC and solid science experience. Is there a respected way to get some CEQA/NEPA experience, while still continuing my employment. I have classroom experience with the laws, understand how they work and would really like to pursue this.

Hi Guys,
I am currently working for an environmental consulting firm as a biological monitor. I would really like to turn my career more towards the environmental planning field. I have a BS and a MS from a UC and solid science experience. Is there a respected way to get some CEQA/NEPA experience, while still continuing my employment. I have classroom experience with the laws, understand how they work and would really like to pursue this.

Suggestions please!

You work for an environmental consulting firm... based on your background, I assume they are a science-based firm, mainly biologists? Are they hired by other planning firms to do studies on environmental impacts? If so, they are probably writing reports which will then feed into the CEQA or NEPA documents that the other firm is putting together. You can gain experience by helping to write those reports. That will expose you to the basic impact analysis process/logic, which is the heart of any CEQA or NEPA document.

There are some classes you can take at university extensions, but experience is what you should focus on, not more class time.

Hi Guys,
I am currently working for an environmental consulting firm as a biological monitor. I would really like to turn my career more towards the environmental planning field. I have a BS and a MS from a UC and solid science experience. Is there a respected way to get some CEQA/NEPA experience, while still continuing my employment. I have classroom experience with the laws, understand how they work and would really like to pursue this.

Suggestions please!

UC is an excellent education. You have a leg up. As a fellow alum, I can't in all honesty encourage you to take on more debt now. But if you must go into planning, EnvPlan is the way to go. But caveat: if you don't like pushing paper around, figure out something else. Ecology, f'r instance.